Comes as no surprise: the Aussies will keep a straight face. They’re nice and decent folks. So are the Kiwis. They’re both easy to get along with, except for people who bawl about dump deals, then slam down the phone.

The Dumb Deal screams down a phone line? He gets confused about numbers? He pulls out of deals, tears up contracts, shreds agreements, destroys signed documents, no longer accepts green cards, legal visas – and threatens to destroy careers of people he doesn’t like?

Big deal, Australian and New Zealand representatives must have thought. They took the initiative and are now having tentative – or not that tentative – chummy chats about trade deals. They are aiming at a “TPP 12 minus one”.

Not all of the 12-minus-one are happy with China’s interest, but one never knows. It might only take a one-sided, particularly insulting telephone conversation with a representative of say Singapore, Brunei, Japan – and the Asia-Pacific corner of the world may decide, it’s more fun to have their very own TTP-minus-the USA.

Meanwhile, in the UK, Mr Speaker has told Parliament what he thinks should happen when the Dumb Deal shows up for his state visit caused by an invitation by the UK’s PM. It doesn’t show, but she’s looking at the world through rose-tinted glasses. She talk about special relationhips. So Mr Speaker hinted: fine if the Dumb Deal chats with the Royals, but preferably no Westminster Hall talk-down. Like a majority in this world, Mr Speaker had some problems with Dumb Deal’s Bad Ban.

It’s not just Mr Speaker and millions of other people who have a problem with say the Dumb Deal’s Bad Ban. The Australian Green Party scratched its head. They had a good look at the way the Dumb Deal operates, then went after an amendment. They’re aiming at an amendment which “… extends the immigration minister’s power to cancel visas on character grounds to give parliament the power to cancel visas of foreign leaders.”

Unlike some, they aim at banning a specific person from showing up in Australia, invited or not.
If only the Pommies had thought of such a brilliant ban!

It’s unclear if New Zealand’s Greens and similar political parties the world over, intend to go after a similar ban to cancel a visa for a certain foreign leader. A lot depends of course, on a country’s constitution, laws, political parties, parliament and such. At the moment, it’s also uncertain if the Australian Greens will get their Trump Ban. Nevertheless, one has to admit: brilliant initiative – it would be a brilliant ban.